Treve & Katrina Travel The World

"Is that a London accent I detect?" drawled the all-American skater who weaved his way alongside us as we coasted down one of San Francisco's ubiquitous roller-coaster streets. "Welcome to America!" Yes folks, here we are in Californ-I-A on the very last leg of the trip and staying in a down-at-heel hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Welcome to America!

The flight from Auckland got off to an interesting start as water started seeping from the ceiling of the plane immediately after take-off and before a 13 hour journey - gulp! Apparently it was just condensation and entirely normal. Flying east over the international date line, we felt as though we were extras in the film Groundhog Day as we got to enjoy Sunday for a second time.

With the arrival of LA came the appearance of the trout-pout and other ridiculous results of cosmetic surgery. Jet-lagged and with a few hours to kill at the airport before our transfer flight onwards to San Francisco, we took in our first taste of America over a bucket of the obligatory Starbucks coffee. Leaving behind the hilly terrain of LA, with just a brief glimpse of the Hollywood sign, we took to the skies for the short hop 1 hour north to San Francisco.

Arriving after dark and needing to save a few pennies, we opted to trapse across town, fully-laden, rather than catching a cab. We have visited many cities on the trip, but the characters we encountered along Hyde Street were some of the strangest and sadest you're ever likely to encounter - urban America at it's worst. Drug addicts, the infirm and homeless stumbling behind zimmer frames, dogs on strings and street kids practising their boxing, others shouting mad ramblings - we didn't feel at all conspicuous with our entire wordly belongings strapped in full view on our backs! We only discovered the next morning in the neighbourhood coffee shop that we'd passed right through the centre of Tenderloin, one of SF's most notorious inner-city gang districts - oh well, another lucky escape then?!

Home sweet home!

Even the traffic lights are against him!

The hotel was as cheap and cheerful as ever and only 10 minutes walk from Union Square in the heart of the city. Waking up to perfectly blue skies, we braced the nippy air and ventured onto the TV set of San Francisco.

Downtown skyline

From the diagonal fire escapes, to the yellow cabs darting the narrow streets, to the 1930's Flash Gordon-style trams, to the smoke billowing from the drain covers, we felt as though everything had been placed for our benefit and we were the viewers in this spectacle.

Downtown San Francisco

Flash Gordon-style tram glides by

Diner

We ventured down to the Ferry Terminal and followed the line of disused piers whose glory days had long since disappeared along with the building of the Oakland container port on the opposite side of the bay.

No fun allowed!

We shuffled along in the foot steps of lunchtime joggers and stopped off for delicious shrimp sandwiches at the tourist trap of Fisherman's Wharf, gateway to the island of Alcatraz - now tantalisingly close to the shore. As we followed the path further from the city centre, the rusty red colour of the Golden Gate bridge loomed it's huge structure above the mouth of the bay.

Golden Gate Bridge

The colour, perfectly in tune with the surrounding hills of Marin County on the north side of the bay, deepened to a darker hue as the weak winter sun cast it's light over the surfers, catching big point breaks directly at the foot of one of the bridge's towers.

Surfing at the foot of the Bridge

Even New Zealand's Rob Roy Glacier did little to stand us in good stead for the grovel over the steep hills back to the hotel. Along the way, we passed the famous Lombard Street "the crookedest street in the world", depicted in many films, and watched drivers negotiating it's multiple switch-backs (my kingdom for a skateboard! TK)

Lombard Street, the world's crookedest street

Humphrey Bogart reputedly rode this tram in the 1940s

Unlike Robben Island, where prisoners were undeserving in-mates, the residents of Alcatraz (named after the Spanish word for the albatrosses that inhabit the island) were the most notorious of hardcore criminals of the early to mid-20th century.

OK then!

Alcatraz, home to the toughest of the tough

The "Birdman" and Al Capone (to name but a few) served long stretches in this most secure of institutions. The mainland, being so close to the island, was a huge temptation for would-be escapees. However every attempt failed, as famously portrayed in the Hollywood movie "Escape from Alcatraz".

Escape from Alcatraz

We even learned that Alcatraz was the only prison in the US penal system to provide hot showers for it's prisoners, just so that they would be even more badly acclimatised to the icy waters separating them from freedom on the mainland.

Visiting time at Alcatraz

Site of armed revolt inside Alcatraz

Back on terra-ferma, we hit the road Blazing Saddles-style on our hire bikes and cruised the Golden Gate Bridge, passing the humble abodes of the rich and famous, such as Robin Williams and Sharon Stone - San Fran is certainly a city of huge contrast.

Vintage ad at the home of Levis jeans

Treve's hell, Katrina's heaven

Next, to the home of late 1960s Flower Power and the old stomping ground of chief hippy torch carriers, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. A colourful tie-dye neighbourhood to say the least, the next generation of drop-outs certainly seemed to be keeping the spirit of free-living well and truly alive. There's obviously big money in the chilled-out bohemian life-style - Porsche 911s were parked up outside brightly painted Victorian era houses. Rather like Portobello Road in Notting Hill really.

Hippy Heaven at The Haight

Happy Hour

We'd brought our trusty tent all the way from New Zealand with the naive plan of spending a few days camping and trecking around the nearby Yosemite National Park. This idea was swiftly scuppered when we realised that the Sierra Nevada now lay under a 6 inch blanket of snow. Time for a re-think, so we booked ourselves onto a day-long tour instead. Following in the footsteps of the celebrated photographer Ansel Adams, we were soon lugging our Kodak Brownies and wowing and whooping in wonderment alongside our fellow Yankie day-trippers.

El Capitane, Yosemite

Giant sequoia tree, Yosemite

Treve and his Cornish school buddies had grown up on a diet of California surf culture (including his late 80s "Californian flick" haircut! KL), so it was time to go and sample the real thing, down the coast at the surf town of Santa Cruz. The town boardwalk, lined with tall palms and a typical 50s-era fairground (complete with timber roller-coaster) and vintage Cadillacs and Chevys cruising the pier all conjured up images of a stereotypical Californian sun-drenched seaside town (albeit out of season).

Retro movies in Santa Cruz

On the boardwalk

Cruising the strip

Take me to your leader!

The town had it's quota of beggars and eccentrics, again mingling with the wealthy overspill from Silicon Valley.

Barbara Cartland meets Christopher Biggins in Santa Cruz

Out on the point, young wannabies surfers jostled for position on the break with the older, stylish longboarders who'd seen it all before. The surfers leapt in from the cliffs to position themselves for the huge swells that licked around the point, all under the critical gaze of the gallery of spectators (and seals!) watching the drama unfold from above - very impressive!

Sunset surfer

Cool ride to the beach

Being the last week of the trip, and having seen so many amazing sights along the way, we just had to end it on a high note. So, we took what seemed to be one of the few trains in this gas-guzzling nation and climbed the 10,000 feet of the Sierra Nevada to the dizzy heights of the beautiful Lake Tahoe for some last minute skiing and boarding. We'd booked into a $29 a night motel and were more than a little dubious about staying in a Misery-style lodge, trapped in the middle of a gambling town in the snowy mountains. The state line with Nevada runs straight throught the middle of Tahoe and all of Las Vegas's finest are represented here (conveniently offering cheap cheese burgers and booze to tempt in the punters). We succumbed to the lure of the one-armed bandit, positioned tantalisingly next to our table and managed to keep hold of our pants, gambling the princely sum of 4 quarters and managing to win it all back!

Gambling and skiing co-exist in Tahoe

The resort of Heavenly was a picturesque town in an alpine style, where we skied and boarded like it was the end of the trip - willing in mind, but not capable in body!

Overlooking Lake Tahoe

Winter wonderland

Tahoe boarder grabs some air time

It seems almost impossible to think that after almost 8 months of amazing adventures we'll be flying back to Blighty tomorrow. We trust you'll be able to cope without your regular fix of tall travel tales - T&K style?! We'd like to extend our thanks to the creators of Photoshop for enabling us to create these photographic works of art - Mrs Miggin's B&B in Bognor has been very comfortable for the last 8 months!!

Peace out (in an American Idol stylee) !!

Treve & Katrina xxxxxxxxxx